Dell XPS M1330: Third time is the charm?

Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Larry seems like a swell guy
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I wonder if Larry could hook me up with a Dell Veso
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I wonder if Larry would hook me up with a 8 series mobile gpu
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

The saga continues then I guess, seems to be taking a rather long time and you can't be the only consumer with the issue ?
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I would think there are hundreds of others, especially those plagued by the Wireless-N issue.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Despite my amazing tech support and customer care superpowers, I don't have the ability to give away free stuff (much to my dismay). ;)

Matt, I got some information on one of the problems you have with the M1330. The system does not ship with three antennae for the 802.11n wireless. The reason for this is that while the standard does list a third one for better diversity, none of the cards currently available support the third antenna.

As for the SSD HDD and AHCI, I have not been able to find anything useful out yet. But if I do, I will be sure to let you know.

If you want to PM me the name of whoever it is at Dell you are working with I would be happy to contact them myself to see if there is anything I can do to speed things up (I have options not normally available to tech support or customer care due to my position). Unfortunately, without knowing what the delay is I don't know how much help I can be.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I must say, it is rather nice to have a Dell Support rep here. Stick around Larry :)
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Larry,

The Wireless-N card does have a port/input for the third antenna. My sources tell me that it is in fact the LCD kit that is the problem. Without the third antenna you cannot see any Wireless-N network.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Matt,

The LCD kit ships with only two antennae for the wireless cards so in a way, your sources are correct. However, they ship that way on purpose.

First, 802.11n does work with only two antenna connections. You get one stream per antennae, so with only two antennae you only get two streams, but they are using the N protocol. Currently there are no three stream 11n radios on the market. My information is that we should see three stream radios next year, but I don't know when.

With the current generation of 11n cards you might get an increase in signal robustness by using the third antenna (signal diversity), but you are still capped at about 300Mbps peak data rate due to only two data streams. Because of this, and some space limitations due to the system size, the third antenna for 802.11 was removed from the system. Once the three stream radios become available systems with three antennae are sure to be available from Dell. Unfortunately, I don't know whether that change will be back-ported to the M1330 (since we will probably have a newer model system to replace it by that time).

If you have more questions on the wireless please let me know.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Wow that is some amazing information, thanks Larry!
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Now if I can only figure out why the solid state drive isn't working they way it should for you ...


Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I could be wrong and I might pick up a USB adapter to test this out.

I have put in two Wireless-N networks for clients and both of those setups use three antennas. Both XPS M1330's that I have don't even see my network or one of the aforementioned networks as being Wireless-N. The notebook sees it as Wireless-G. I would assume that if the notebook was wired correctly that it would see the network as Wireless-N.

BTW, I am using an Intel 4965 Wireless-N card.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

The second system you are using as-is, imaged out the box from Dell right? No formatting and mattification?
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Incorrect. I removed the SSD in the first system and I am now using a 2.5" SATA HDD. The second system has been boxed back up and is sitting in the store room.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

All of the documentation I have says the Intel 4965 will behave the way I described in my previous post. All the third antenna does on that card is give additional antenna diversity, basically improving signal strength for the connection.

Specs for the card indicate:
* 802.11a/b/g certified, Compatible and/or upgradeable for expected WFA draft11n certification, Support for 802.11 d/e/h/i
* Dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) with 2x2 or 2x3 MIMO support [two channels over two or three antennae]

I've checked the (one) driver update for the card (from the Dell support site) and the updates don't mention anything about wireless-N. I have actually connected the card using N band but it was a while ago and, unfortunately, I don't remember what router we connected to for that testing (I want to say it was a Linksys, but it has been long enough that I'm not even sure of that). If your card is connecting using G instead of N, try setting the card and/or router for N only to see if that changes anything. I've seen before with B/G cards and routers were it defaults to B even though it could do G (and does if you set it to G only).

If you are having problems connecting to a specific N band router my first thought is about compatibility concerns, just like the problems some G cards had with some B/G routers before the standard was finalized. Since the N standard is still a draft I would be very surprised if there were not compatibility problems between brands at this point.

For the hard drive, is the SATA drive working properly in AHCI mode, or does that need to be changed over to ATA as well?

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I have the SATA hard disk drive working under AHCI mode.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Matt, would you be willing to ship one of the two systems to me so I can take a look at it and do some testing? If you are, I will send you a pre-paid waybill to have it shipped directly to my desk here in Round Rock TX (Dell HQ). Unfortunately, we don't have one here already that I can play with to see if I can reproduce the problem (outside of engineering, the customers get the systems first ;)).

[Edit so I don't double post]

I've done some digging on things that could be causing the poor performance while in AHCI and have a few questions that will help me better understand what is happening.

On the first system you mentioned that you installed a different version of Vista to better meet your needs with the system. When you did that installation, did you load the Intel SATA driver (at the F6 prompt)? After getting the OS installed, did you start the driver installation with the Dell Notebook System and Intel Chipset software? The Notebook System software is basically Dell extensions to the chipset software to ensure the OS can properly access/talk to the components in the system, so it is possible that leaving that off could cause the problem.

When you switched from AHCI to ATA mode in the BIOS, did you get a BSOD (STOP 0x7b)? From everything I have read you should have, and if you did not, that might indicate where the problem is.

Am I correct that you tested the second system before doing an OS reload to see how it performed?

From talking to a few coworkers, we agree with your diagnosis that the problem is related to the drivers (missing, wrong ones, or incorrectly configured) as the most likely cause. Getting more info on exactly what steps you took on the reinstall would definitely help me to figure this out.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 
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Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Larry, I might have to swing over and say hi :)

I'm over in RR8 :cool:
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

I loaded the F6 drivers; using the drivers provided from Dell and Intel.

After switching from AHCI to ATA I reinstalled Windows.

I tested the second system out of the box and did not load a new OS. After it failed to work as it should I put it back in the box and haven't touched it since.

I've been through everything Larry. I made the decision today to return the notebook for a refund. Moving forward I will order a new M1330 without SSD.
 
Re: The wait is over again, the replacement for the M1330 has shipped!

Sazar, feel free to drop buy. ;)

Matt, I completely understand. If you have not gotten the return set up already feel free to give me a call (i'm sent you my direct number in PM). I would like to schedule to have one shipped back for credit, and the other shipped directly to me so I can check it to try and find out why it is not working in AHCI mode, and get it over to our engineers if needed.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
 

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